Thank YouOur family is coming through a challenging period after an unexpected healthcare emergency with our oldest son. Thankfully, all is improving, and our focus is now on helping him convalesce and resume the life of a 21-year old college senior.

With almost a month to observe a great number of healthcare workers, managers and teams at work, I’m much impressed with the care, compassion and dedication of almost everyone that we encountered during this sometimes frightening and always discomforting journey.

And while my focus was on the care of our son, I am wired to look at the management systems and customer care approaches that tell me about the organization, its leaders and its commitment to quality. With a critical eye and some personal investment, I came away from this experience impressed.

Our son was airlifted to OSF St. Francis in Peoria, IL and from the remarkable ICU and surgical team that literally met him at the helicopter pad to the seemingly endless stream of miracle workers otherwise known as nurses and nurse technicians, we are grateful and thankful.  In several weeks of constant, around-the-clock care, I found exactly one individual that missed the memo on what it means to serve and care.

There’s an expectation that the surgical and ICU teams are top notch, and in our case, they exceeded expectations. Their thoroughness and their clarity of communication and their timely follow-up through the seemingly endless small setbacks and new challenges, provided comfort and critical care during some tough moments.    To Dr. Gupta and his team, words cannot adequately share our thanks for your expertise and your care.

And while the doctors are critical, it is the support staff…from the nurses to the nurse technicians, the patient advocates and the special care nurses that are with the patient 95% of the time that truly are the face of the organization.

Almost to a person (one exception), what we observed was a large sample set of health-care professionals genuinely committed to serving and caring for their patients. You could not help but feel the genuineness in their concern for the patient and for the patient’s family members at every encounter.  The concern came through in the focus on the patient, the eye contact, the questions, the soothing tone of voice, the pro-active efforts to increase comfort and the time taken to get to know the patient.

I found myself observing all of the verbal and non-verbal behaviors of the nurses and technicians, and was literally blown away by the consistency in their genuineness as well as their efficiency. Clearly, there are great hiring practices and even better training practices at work at OFS St. Francis on 4-Surgery.

While one might argue that anyone choosing to work in a direct contact role with patients must love people, I’ve been around some other “top-rated” hospitals where the engagement with patients and families was transactional instead of relationship-oriented.

The personal touches of Libby, Missy, Marissa, Sam, Kyle, Jen, Tasha and so many others allowed all of us to navigate a treacherous situation knowing that there were caring, high-quality humans looking after body and mind.  Thank you from the bottom of our hearts!

Management Lessons in Customer Care for All Of Us:

The demeanor and delivery of quality customer engagement is a direct outcome of the leadership and management practices of an organization. So many organizations that we encounter in our daily lives don’t give a crap about how their people engage their customers.  To those organizations, we’re faceless, nameless numbers with credit cards that are best dispensed with as quickly and coldly as possible.  For those leaders and managers that foster and tolerate that environment, you have our collective disdain.

The leaders at OSF St. Francis in Peoria, IL are to be commended for instilling the focus on the patient as an important customer from the top down. Rarely have I encountered an entity that was wired to serve with care, compassion and professionalism at the level of this fine institution.

When considering this issue, I am reminded of Dr. Deming’s perspective on the unknown and the unknowable. He was quick to remind us that the value of a satisfied customer is both unknown and unknowable. The same goes for the dissatisfied customer.  This post is my small part to share my great regard for OSF St. Francis for your remarkable medical and personal care.

Thank you!